Vic Labor's lame plan to move the climate dial

The Victorian Labor Party has released its climate change policy – it's below in all its four paragraphs of detailed glory.

I estimate that, if they're lucky, it might just reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions by maybe less than 1 per cent.

The $20 million new Energy Jobs Fund is a joke. Twenty million will probably fool the majority of the electorate as something significant, but it's a drop in the ocean.

Development of new wind turbine technology, including blades, passed Australia by an awful long time ago. Vestas, Siemens, RE Power and GE spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing and proving up new models of wind turbines; they are likely to laugh at $20 million given Victoria's lack of experience in this area.

The same goes for solar energy.

Moving to 1km buffer zones is a sound move, but won't do much until the uncertainty surrounding the Renewable Energy Target is resolved.

And what exactly is an “achievable carbon reduction target”? Will this be yet another target that involves platitudes rather than real policy – much like the South Australian government is so fond of? It is a promise to maybe make another promise some time down the track.

This Victorian election gets sadder by the moment.

Victorian Labor climate change policy:

Climate change is one of the most critical issues facing Victoria, and Labor believes the State Government must play a role to help us mitigate the risks and adopt adaptation strategies to respond to the threat. We want to restore Victoria's status as a model for every other state.

Labor will establish the $20 million New Energy Jobs Fund to encourage investment in the renewables sector and focus on the development of technology for the generation and storage of clean energy, such as new blade technology and advanced solar energy.

Liberal anti-jobs policies have ground the wind farm industry to a halt. Labor will restart the industry and support thousands of jobs by reducing the dwelling buffer zone for wind projects from 2km to 1km and opening the doors for community wind farms in the Macedon Ranges.

Labor will review legislation and programs to commit to an achievable carbon emissions reduction target. We will also refocus the role of Sustainability Victoria to assist communities with Climate Change, and investigate improving the fuel efficiency of government fleet cars.